Building Muscle: The Girl’s Guide

Why would a girl want to build muscle? Shockingly, some people, both men and women, still think this. The answer is simple: to look fit, healthy, and sexy! Muscle on a woman looks very different to the way muscle looks on a man. The fact is, women don’t have the same hormones that men have, and this makes it very difficult for them to ‘bulk up’ the way men do. Women who do end up getting much bigger usually have to train for years, eat more food than you can imagine, and probably take some performance/figure enhancing drugs to boot (although not all of them do). In fact: dare yourself to try to build as much muscle as you can. You’ll soon realize that this is tough, and you’re not going to magically turn into the hulk overnight!

Why should women want to build muscle?

More efficient fat loss – the body burns fat at a faster rate the more muscle it has.

Now that we’ve got that covered, we can talk about building muscle for girls. One question many women ask is: should I lose the fat I have before I start to build muscle? The answer is no. If you’re new to training, you’re very lucky. You’re going to build muscle at a much faster rate for the first 6 months or so, and as the body builds this muscle, it’s going to burn fat too. You can’t get away from the fat burning benefits of building muscle. In fact, women who want to build as much muscle as possible and start eating in a calorie surplus sometimes even find they lose more fat than when they restricted themselves! Sure, cardio can help to burn some fat and calories, but weight and resistance training speeds up the metabolism and allows the body to burn fat long after we’ve stopped training. Cardio stops working as soon as we stop! What more reason do you need to get off the treadmill and pick up the weights?

What It Really Takes To Build Muscle

It truly takes a small handful of things to build muscle. If you’re not new to training, you will find it more difficult to build muscle than a newbie, so you’ll need to be in a controlled calorie surplus to make sure you’re giving your body the calories and nutrients it needs. This doesn’t mean eating everything and anything. You should still make smart, nutrient dense choices with the odd treat. Then, once you have your diet figured out (try a macro calculator), you can focus on training. Alongside your diet and training, you can take a number of supplements to help, from the likes of protodioscin to BCAAs. There are so many out there, you’ll need to do your own research to figure out what’s right for you. Remember, they won’t do all of the work for you.

Regular weight training is important: ensuring you challenge yourself each and every time you step foot in the gym. If you’re not finding a weight all that difficult, it’s time to up it! However, remember to go for form over weight, always. Nobody likes an egotistical lifter.

It really is that simple to build muscle for girls. Eat right, train, and be consistent. Make sure you take progress pictures so you can see how far you’ve come, too!